Parents and school

administrators are still nervous as schools reopen this

Fall across the country. The bitter taste of the killings

at Columbine High School and the violence in schools

nationwide still lingers. Security experts struggle to

ascertain how to keep students safe while social

scientists search to determine why such events occur in

the most prosperous society in history.

Yet, one wonders if the

answers are not so complex after all but terribly,

horrifyingly, brutally simple. There is a law of nature,

expounded in scripture, that says that "what one

sows, one reaps." The modern rendition is,

"What goes around, comes around."

Why are larger and larger

numbers of America's children becoming more violent, more

murderous, especially against their own? Law enforcement

officials will not hesitate to point out that the most

dangerous criminals are the young. In cities all over the

land, the lawbreakers without remorse, without

compassion, without conscience, are the young between 12

and 18.

Most police would rather

encounter a serial killer than a junior high student with

a gun. The latter is felt to be far more likely to kill

without hesitation.

For all it's wealth,

opportunity, and possibilities, America is a world leader

in systematized violence against its own young. Every

year, without letup, Americans kill 1,500,000 of its most

innocent citizens - the unborn. Since Roe vs. Wade, some

40,000,000 boys and girls, who should have been enjoying

the rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness," have been ripped to pieces and discarded

like so much medical trash in this nation's abortuaries.

Abortion is a profitable

business with multi-billions of dollars being paid to

snuff out the lives of those who would inconvenience and

complicate the lives of their parents. And make no

mistake - the vast number of terminated pregnancies

are not because of rape, incest, or to preserve the life

and health of the mother. That number is so small as to

be practically negligible.

No, children have their

lives ended because, for whatever reason, their birth and

life is inconvenient... like a weed in an otherwise

groomed lawn. Is it any wonder that, in a society so bent

on destroying its children, children are, themselves,

becoming destroyers? What goes around comes around. The

seeds that are sown always produce a crop.

Yet, the church has all too

often been the leader in declaring children to be

inconvenient. In the days when families were valued and

children considered to be essential components of those

families, church services were filled with children. Even

in the most staid of services, the little ones, even the

babies, following Sunday School, where lessons would be

taught at age levels, would take their places in the pews

alongside their parents for a joint expression of worship

and solidarity. The old saying that "families that

pray together, stay together," included the hour on

Sunday morning.

Somewhere along the line,

Mom and Dad got tired of the inconvenience of trying to

listen to the sermon as little Johnny shuffled and

squirmed. Within a generation, sanctuaries were devoid of

children and the Johnnys and Susies of America were

transported en mass to a holding center called

"children's church." Children's church, it was

said, was designed to teach children to worship at their

own level, but the truth is that it really gained in

popularity because it removed the noise, the

distractions, the inconveniences, from the sanctuary.

Mom and Dad could abandon

their responsibility to be role models of worship and

could have an hour of peace without the bother of

troublesome kids.

Pastors all over the land

then decided that ushers would be specifically trained to

remove crying babies from the hallowed places so that

people would not be distracted during the all-important

sermon. Remove the inconvenience for the sake of the

adults. Before long, America's young and youth were being

warehoused, away from adults, in ghettos with the catchy

names of "superchurch," "teen

church," "youth hour," and the like.

It seemed like such a good

idea at the time. On Sunday, children's pastors and youth

pastors took the place of the pastors in the kids lives

just as the day care workers had taken the place of the

parents during the week.

Little by little, for their

own good, we believed, children were effectively removed

from the lives of the adults in their lives. They were

removed for the convenience of the parents.

A social and spiritual

removal - a social and spiritual abortion, if you

will - slowly began to take shape until, now, total

isolation on Sunday is the normal way of doing things.

The children have been removed. Life is simpler. The

message, though unintentional, is clear. Children are

wanted and desired... but only if they are convenient and

under strictly defined conditions.

Society, too, has

determined that children are wanted and desired... if

convenient. But popular writers also have concluded that,

if children are not wanted, it is actually better for the

children if they are killed before they are born so they

will not have to grow up unwanted! We show the children

that they are really loved by killing them! Is it any

wonder that many youth feel isolated, unloved, angry, and

self-destructive?

In its most extreme form,

the children of a violent nation turn violent against

other children. Some parents are reversing the trend,

home-schooling their children, becoming involved in the

public schools, or including the children in all family

activities. Some churches are sponsoring "family

retreats" instead of just getaways for youth, as

important as these functions are.

Some congregations are

keeping the children in the church services for most of

the service, sending the children out only during the

sermon and, even then, bringing them back in to be

reunited with their parents as quickly as possibly.

In some churches, even in

those that employ children's workers and youth pastors,

pastors are relearning how to be the pastor to all of the

people, children and youth included. In some families and

churches, children are being valued once again.

Children who know they are

valued, loved, and included in church, family, society,

and life (even when they are inconvenient), are not

likely to turn violent. It is time to begin to sow

different seeds if we want a different crop. What goes

around comes around.

[Father

David Epps is rector of Christ the King Church, meeting

at 10 a.m. each Sunday in the Carmichael-Hemperley

building on Ga. Highway 74 in Peachtree City. He may be

contacted online at [email protected] or at P. O. Box 2192,

Peachtree City, GA 30269.